Eva Longoria’s advice to entrepreneurs: ‘You’re not alone’

Hollywood magic can make business seem simple, but every movie requires a team, budget, vision, and steady stream of decisions.

Producer, director, and actor Eva Longoria knows this firsthand. Outside of her production company, Hyphenate Media Group, Longoria is involved in a range of businesses. She co-founded tequila brand Casa Del Sol and co-owns soccer clubs Club Nexeca and Angel City FC.

Those experiences have shaped how she approaches entrepreneurship—and taught her a few lessons she keeps coming back to: Don’t let perfection delay progress. Take your ego out of the equation. And, perhaps most importantly, ask for help.

She’s now putting that last lesson into practice through “Call Eva,” a Lenovo-backed initiative that lets small business owners ask her about challenges they’re navigating. Longoria will answer select questions on September 16.

In a conversation with Founder Brew, Longoria reflected on her biggest business lessons, how her acting experience has shaped her approach to risk, and the value of collaboration.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What questions from small business owners made you realize there’s a need for founder-to-founder advice?

It’s a very lonely road. The main thing that they want is community. One of the biggest challenges is just feeling like you have to figure everything out on your own. Every time somebody’s sought out advice for me, it’s been about that.

What are some questions or situations that, with your background as an entrepreneur, you’re specifically equipped to help a founder navigate?

I’ve started several businesses. One thing is hiring people smarter than me in the industry of what I’m doing…I don’t write, but I know what I want the script to be, so I hire a great writer. I’m never going to be able to write that script, but I can definitely guide that process as a director, as a producer.

In my soccer team, I’m not a football expert. I don’t know what the left corner does. I don’t even know where he is on the field, but, boy, does my team know.

Surrounding yourself with experts and people who can answer questions and can do that…Along the way, I’ve learned, and that’s the biggest thing: Making sure you are resourceful, whether that’s mentorship, whether that’s expertise, whether that’s just community. There’s so many ways you can be resourceful.

What’s something that you believe about business today that you absolutely didn’t understand when you first became a business owner?

You’re not alone. You have all these resources at your fingertips, and then also making sure perfection doesn’t prevent progress. Those are literally the two mottos that I live by with my business experience.

Could you share a time where you had to learn a lesson the hard way?

Hiring the wrong people or surrounding yourself with the wrong people. That’s been a hard lesson because then you start over. You got to separate ways. A big lesson is: Know your exit strategy in case that happens…It’s like the prenup, right? “I’m never getting divorced.” Well, you might. Let’s be prepared.

You’ve been in positions where you’ve been judged or rejected, or movies didn’t pan out how you wanted them to. How has that shaped the way that you handle risks or rejection as a business owner?

I don’t approach businesses with fear, but there is definitely weighing risks, and I think there’s a balance in between there.

Hollywood’s a great example of that. You see the success that is happening in our industry right now are by disruptors, by people not going the legacy routes…The success stories right now, whether it’s Netflix or YouTubers or influencers—whatever it is—they’re people who bumped the system and said, “Why would you do it that way? Why not do it this way?” Being innovative requires risk.

You have to balance that with analyzing those risks. “What’s the worst that can happen?” is a great question I always ask myself…Then I weigh those risks with the idea of innovation and the excitement of innovation: “What if we did it a different way and it worked?”

What has being a founder taught you that acting never could?

No ego is involved, and that’s just being a leader in general. My industry, specifically in Hollywood, there’s a lot of egos—a lot of egos—and there’s a lot of hills people die on.

What I’ve learned is: Collaboration is key. You have to work with people, and people have personalities and egos. You can’t let your ego get in the way of the grand scheme of things, whether that’s making a movie or producing a movie or launching a product. What’s best for the business? What’s best for this TV show, this movie? I am of the mind that the best idea wins. It doesn’t have to be mine.